Lace.



A. HENKELS.

LACE.

APPLICATION FILED JULYZ. I913.

Patented; June 20, 1915.

mam-521 m w W ALBERT HENKELS, OF LANGERFELD, NEAR BAR-MEN, GERMANY.

LACE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

' Patented me 20, 1916.-

- Application filed July 2, 1913. Serial No. 777,105.

To all whom it may concern:

'Be it known that. I, ALBERT HnNnnLs, a citizen of the German Empire, residing at Langerfeld, near Barmen in the Province Westphalia, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Laces, of which the following is a specification.

, In machine-made plaited work the threads necessarily all run more orless in a diagonal direction and consequently impart to the article its characteristic plaited appearance.

- Attempts have already been made to produce,

on braiding machines having one bobbin to each plate,'lace resembling gauze by connecting together at regularintervals pairs of plaiting threads arranged at a definite distance apart and running longitudinally, such connection being eifected by means of a special pair of bobbin threads passing like the weft of a woven fabric to and fro across the entire width of the plaited fabric. Since "in such a process, however, the pair of bobbins which imitate the weft must pass to and fro always across the entire width of the fabric and all the other bobbins remain in operative, while said bobbins are passing to and fro, it follows that this method of working must take up an extraordinary amount of time and must consequently be expensive. There is moreover the disadvantage that it is impossible to produce patterns in or upon such a plaited fabric.

Now this invention is a new pillow lace with a gauze-like foundation made on a bobbinma'chine in which all the defects. above referred to are obviated, by the bobbin threads being plaited in groups to form narrow strips running in the longitudinal dire tion and forming the warps and by these strips then being connected together at intervals v for the purpose of forming the weft by the simultaneous interchange of the marginal threads of adjacent plaited strips. By the manner of arranging the threads adoptedthe separate longitudinal strips are connected together in the directionv of the weft across the entire width of the plaited fabric with the result that the time required and the expense involved are considerably .reduced in comparison with the method heretofore usual, while the further advantage is at the same time realized that by the con-' stant interchange of the marginal threads of two ad] acent strips of plaited fabric there can be secured a compact combination there- 'of along a considerable length with the result that the squaresproduced inthe foundation pattern can by this means, independently of each other, be made either open or closed as may be'desired. By a suitable arrangement ofthes'e open or closed squares there can be produced simultaneously with the manufacture of the gauze-like foundation and on the latter, certain flat patterns formed of closed squares.

The accompanying drawings illustratelace made in accordance with this invention 2 wherein- Figure 1 shows the pattern of the lace diagrammatically, Fig. 2 shows asmall portion thereof on an enlarged scale and Fig. 3 a portion where the plaited threads cross each other, the threads being shown somewhat loose to enable the position of the threads to be clearly seen.

In the example illustratedthe lace fabric consists of the separate plaited strips a which are intended to correspond to the warp thread of ordinary gauze material ,and runat uniform distances apart parallelto the longitudinal direction of the entire plait, and each of which as is clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 3, is composed of four threads; At regular intervals the plaited strips a'areconnected with each other by the interchange of the marginal threads of two ad-, jacent strips, these threads forming a' trans verse piece I) that lies at right angles to the strips a and corresponds to the weft of the. gauze. The squares 0 formed by the individual longitudinal and transverse strips, v may be either open or, as indicated at'd,

closed by the continuous interchange of the two marginal threads of adjacent plaited strips. As each of the separate squares may be either open or closed as desired, independently of any of the others, tlfere can be produced by suitably grouping the open and closed squares, quite irregular fiat 'pat-' terns of any desired outline on a gauze foundation as shown in Fig. 1 similar to --those produced on ordinary gauze by figuring. The separate squares may be more or less closely filled as desired, a certain amount of shading being capable by this means of Prefbeing introduced intothe pattern. erably two of the four threads of the separate warp strips are somewhat thicker than the others, these thickerthreads being used for the formation of the weft while the thinner threads extend through :the entire length of the warp strip. By this means. the

' i are caused to differ only ground, the borders of formed by pairs of threads twisted about each other and running laterally and by longitudinally running groups of four ALBERT HEN KELS 1 8.

Vitnesses HELEN N UFER, ALBERT NUEER.

copies of this patent may be obtainealtor five cents each, by addressing the {Comnilssioner of rateltl. I 7 Washington. D. 0." I 

